Reading Wrap-Up: April 2016

I’m actually pretty impressed with the reading I did this month since gears have started to shift a bit around here. I’m coming to a close with the classes I teach online, but we’re moving into testing season and have about a month of face-to-face sessions ahead of us. I’m also finishing up observations and post-test data on one research project while being introduced to a new one, which is what I’ll be working on while I’m in school. And speaking of school, I’m taking a prerequisite statistics course online, so time is a little more limited.

Reading

The Girls by Emma ClineThe North Water by Ian McGuireTuesday Nights in 1980 by Molly PrentissSeven Brief Lessons on Physics by Carlo RevelliThe Gunning of America by Pamela HaagDear Fang, With Love by Rufi ThorpeGrief Is the Thing With Feathers by Max Porter

Best Book of the Month

I just barely fit it in by finishing yesterday morning, but Grief Is the Thing With Feathers by Max Porter is the best book I’ve read all year.

Watching

Have I mentioned that I’m done rewatching Mad Men? Maybe once or eleven times? It’s heartbreaking and nothing is filling that Peggy Olson-sized hole in my heart. My husband and I did do a quick run through The People v. O.J. Simpson, which ended up being so much better than I expected. Now we’re still following along with Game of Thrones, though it’s lost a bit of its spark for me, so it just feels like a slow wait for the return of Mr. Robot.

Looking Forward To

BEA is so close! I feel like I haven’t quite realized how soon it is, but I’m more excited than anything. When I went two years ago I tried to do meticulous planning and most of that fell apart when I hit the chaos. I still have my eye on what publishers are bringing to the show, but I’m much more interested in just being there and seeing people without the worry of scheduled times.

A few weeks after I get home from Chicago, my family is coming down from Michigan, so there’s even more to look forward to in May!

I just started OJ Simpson last week and am looking forward to the rest of it! It was such a big event in my childhood (my school wheeled a TV into class to show the verdict)…which, looking back on it, is so weird that a celebrity murder trial was such a seminal event in my teenage years (and SO WEIRD that my school wheeled in a TV for the verdict…can you ever imagine that happening now?!). Also – try the ESPN 30 for 30 called June 17, 1994…covers how the car chase was happening live the same day as like 4 major sports events and no one cared at all about the sports stuff…just the car chase. It’s weirdly fascinating.

I have such vivid memories of the trial, too, which is crazy because I was still pretty young! I can picture listening to the verdict in my 6th grade classroom, which is just so insane to think about now.

I’ve fallen out on Game of Thrones because I was cross about what they did to Sansa AND because it felt like the whole narrative was utterly losing momentum. We’ll see how this season goes — maybe I’ll come back in on it if Sansa gets enough to do and people start teaming up again. I can’t handle how separate the storylines have been for so many of these characters. IT GETS BORING.

(Sansa is going to win everything btw. I have said so for years and I shall continue to say so. She’s going to save the m.f. day.)

Heather

I’M SO EXCITED THAT YOU’RE READING THE NORTH WATER. Are you liking it so far?

I hope you have a fun time at BEA. I saw your business cards the other day – they were very cute!